Bride To His Darkness
Chapter 33: Striking A Wrong Chord

Chapter 33: Striking A Wrong Chord

The dreadful silence that followed next was nothing but oppressive.

Samantha and Lucy had both frozen in their position, heads lowered, but Samantha’s heart raced a thousand more since the princess had requested for the guards to seize her. Was she being punished because of last night’s incident?? No matter how hard Samantha tried to stay composed, the fear in her heart already gave her trembling emotions away.

"Do you know what it means for a servant to escape from the Palace walls?" Claire questioned the servant, eyeing her with pure hostility. "To think an extremely low servant as yourself would discard the privileges of the Palace, I have every right to punish you, just in case, to make sure you don’t repeat this treacherous act in the future. Why are you two idiots standing there looking like fools?! Take her to the punishment room and ensure she receives fifty strokes of the whip!"

"W...wait, I didn’t--" Samantha wasn’t given the chance to defend herself as the guards took her away. The bucket of water she held dropped from her grip, and it poured against the tiled floor, nearly coming in contact with Claire’s flowing beige dress.

"You there, clean this place up!"

"Right away!" Lucy, who’s heart was about to leapt from her chest, quickly walked past the princess to go get a clean rag she could use to wipe the water from the tiled floor, successfully escaping the princess’s glaring sight.

A daunting smile reached the corner of Claire’s mouth as she watched the guards take the servant away, and she proudly folded her arms. Everyone had been so fascinated by the lowly maid like she was some sort of goddess last night, but here she is, about to receive fifty strokes for her own stupidity.

With her chin tilted up with exuding pride, Claire gracefully went down the stairs to witness the punishment scene herself.

Lucy, who was drying the floor with a rag, stopped what she was doing when the princess had left. She was still yet to recover from the tremor Princess Claire had made her experience on such a good morning, but she was more worried about Samantha who was about to be punished unjustly. Knowing princess Claire and her wicked ideas for punishment, Lucy could only think of one person who was capable of getting her out of this mess.

"I need to inform Lord Ivan about this." Quickly rising to her feet, Lucy immediately went down the second stairs that led to the warriors training room, knowing Lord Ivan would be there practicing at this hour.

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In the dim-lit punishment room, the sound of a thin-leather strapped whip came down hard on the back of Samantha’s pale feet - the lash of the whip resounding intensively in the quiet punishment room.

Samantha’s eyes were squeezed shut as she anticipated the pain, and when it landed on the back of her feet, her body shook from the impact, but she said absolutely nothing, neither did she make any attempt to protest against the beating she constantly received.

She had received a lot of different punishment in the last five years, but it was her first time being flogged at the soles of her feet. She was made to sit on a wooden chaise lounge with a guard holding her in place, while another guard continued to lash her innocent feet till it turned red.

Princess Claire stood at a corner with her personal maid, watching the scene with satisfaction in her crimson orbs. She would have been fully satisfied if she heard the human servant cry out in agony, but to her disappointment, the servant remained stubbornly quiet whilst receiving the strokes till thin red welts began to form at the back of her feet.

"Harder!" Princess Claire commanded the guards, feeling quite irritated by the servant’s audacity, but before the guard could land another powerful lash at the back of Samantha’s throbbing feet, a long thin chain surrounded with spikes suddenly wrapped the guards wrist mid-air, and the movement of the chains was so swift that no one saw it coming.

Hooking itself against the guard’s wrist, the whip dropped from his hand when the spikes of the chain pierced into the skin of his wrist, eliciting a painful cry from the guard who dropped to his knees. Before anyone could react, he was instantly pulled and dragged by the chains that led him to the entrance of the door.

Looking up with teary eyes, Samantha’s pupils dilated when Ivan stood at the entrance, holding onto the end of the chain as he dragged the guard to where he presently stood. Claire’s already pale face turned white like a ghost when she caught sight of Ivan standing at the entrance, controlling the chains that surrendered the guard to inescapable pain.

"My Lord!" The guard that was being mercilessly dragged forward by the chains surrounding his bleeding wrist, cried out in agony, and he quickly kneeled in front of Ivan who’s expression remained apathetic. The Vampire Lord who hated interruptions while training, was forced to leave in the middle of his session after getting the message of what his foolish sister was up to.

"Seems to me like you have no use of this hand." Controlling the spike-filled chains that threatened to cut the guard’s wrist off, Ivan was about to make it into reality when the guard bowed his head, his forehead touching the ground as he pleaded in a shaky voice.

"F... Forgive me My Lord, I didn’t know she was a servant of yours, please! Have mercy for my unawareness!" The guard was basically sweating in fear, and the tremor in his voice had Samantha blinking in disbelief, making a teardrop leave her eyes.

When she moved her gaze to meet the dark crimson eyes of Ivan, he held it.

For a second, she really assumed it was her hallucination. The thought of someone coming to save her from this unfair treatment never struck her mind at all. To prove her point, she was silently uttering her silent prayers like it would be her death day today, but she found a different light when she looked up to see it was Ivan, but his appearance was one that left her gaping in awe.

He looked no different from someone who just stepped out of a gruesome training, and beads of sweat trickled down his forehead to his unblemished face.

His white tunic clung to his sculpted torso, outlining every curve and muscle. It was difficult to take her eyes off him, despite the silent rage that spoke volumes in those gleaming red eyes of his, and then in one move, he pulled the chains, cutting off the guard’s wrist from his hand.

The abrupt cry of someone in pain jolted Samantha to look at the guard, only to find his hand had been separated from his body. The sight made her stomach churn, and she wanted to empty her stomach from the bloody image that displayed in front of her.

Claire’s maid who also witnessed the horrendous sight passed out immediately on the ground.

"Ivan!" Claire raged at her younger brother who finally looked in her direction, noticing her presence. "You can’t just walk in here and....!!!!" Her curses got stuck in her throat when Ivan lunged the bloody chain in her path, and while Claire froze against the wall in shock, the chains had a near miss as it came in contact with the wall above her head, bursting through with undeniable force, she was sure that if it had touched her, it would have torn her whole body in pieces.

A heavy silence fell in the punishment room, to the point one could hear a pin drop, and Claire could barely hide her disbelief.

A vicious grin graced the Vampire Lord’s lips when he sensed his sister’s fear. She certainly wasn’t expecting he’d attack her too, but she was starting to cause a lot of problems for him which he can no longer tolerate - not when his little lamb is involved.

"Tsk! And I was aiming for your neck." He openly taunted, pulling back his chains that got stuck to the wall, and he could sense his sister finally breathe in some air after recovering from her shock. The smile on his lips had vanished, and the bloody look in his eyes reminded Claire that she was messing with a total lunatic, not her brother.

"Ivan?"

"Why do you aggravate me?" He simply asked, the tone of his voice a great contrast to the raging look in his maddening eyes, and he stopped walking when he stood two feets away from her.

"You want to hurt me, for that destitute ugly mediocre??!!" Claire couldn’t believe it, she was fuming with rage that her face turned red, but despite her boiling anger, she was unable to do a thing about it. "That thing!" She pointed a finger at Samantha, "deserves to be punished, she tried to escape and I was just following the rules."

"I don’t care about what she has done, you touched what was mine and you know I don’t like it, sister." He stated, his tone laced with mockery. "You didn’t only disrupt my peaceful training, but you...dared to hurt what was mine. Everytime, I have to explain it to you and it’s starting to strike a wrong chord."

Releasing a sigh of restraint, he gently caressed the Vampiress’s cheek with his finger, and then warned. "Don’t force me to leave a mark on your flawless skin, cause I will make art out of it."

As much as he spoke softly to his dearest sister, he didn’t fail to pass across his message, and knowing how much his sister fancies her good skin, she would be sure to think twice before going near his belongings.

Turning away from his sister who was still dazed and angry, Ivan walked up to his little lamb who was still sitting on the wooden chair, her aching feet hardly touching the ground.

Even Samantha was afraid of him when he approached her. But when he crouched down so he could take a look at her feet, his hardened gaze softened a bit, and when he met her eyes, Samantha could feel the thumping of her heart pause briefly before speeding up, and there was a strange sensation she felt in the pit of her stomach.

Just like last night, he carried Samantha in his arms again, leaving his sister’s expression to visibly drop with unhidden disdain. Glancing in her direction, he offered her a proffered smile before taking his leave, walking past the guard whom he had dealt with.

"If you don’t want to lose your other hand, it would be wise to return my chain without the blood stain in an hour."

"Of course, My Lord!" The guard, who was silently grieving over the loss of his hand, quickly got to his feet and went to pick the spike-filled chains from where Ivan had dropped it.

Samantha, who was still unable to snap out of her daze, had her eyes locked on Ivan who’s gaze was fixed on the path ahead.

"Keep staring and I will drop you." Hearing him speak like that made Samantha look away with immediate effect. She lowered her gaze, feeling a flush of heat rise up in her cheeks. Lord Ivan was just so intense....and being this close to him, feeling the heat radiating off his body was almost too much for her to handle.

But how... how did he know she was being punished??

Without saying anything else to one another, Ivan brought Samantha back into his room. His cat that always appears from outta nowhere was resting on his bed, and its eyes followed them till Ivan gently dropped Samantha on her bed.

"T... thank you." Was the first thing Samantha thought would be appropriate to say as he nursed her sore feet, but the Vampire Lord remained unusually silent.

"Lord Ivan."

"Keep quiet." He shut her up in a reprimanding tone, and Samantha pouted her lips in displeasure. She flinched in pain when he rubbed the ointment on the back of her feet, and he looked at her, noticing the traces of pain appearing on her face.

"Not even whiskers sustain the amount of torture you do in a day." He shook his head, the annoyance in his muttering tone was obvious, and Samantha couldn’t argue since he was doing her a favor by treating the injury of a mere servant.

When he was done, he dropped the ointment back on the study table and stood tall in front of her, hands tucked in his pocket. His hair looked messy, like the type that happens when you run your fingers over and over again till it comes out disheveled, but this man, he was a force to be reckoned with.

"Keep looking at me like that..." he warned, holding her startled gaze with an incomprehensible glare, "see what happens."

Fluttering her lashes in a state of mental confusion, Samantha was starting to wonder if she herself was going mad for finding that phrase subtly provocative, and she didn’t need him to repeat it before she looked away.

An unnoticeable smirk curved his mouth, and he turned around to leave when Samantha suddenly called him back like she just remembered something.

"Wait, I have another harmless question that I’d want to ask." She said in one breath, and when Ivan arched his brow at her, she took a deep breath and met his gaze.

"Five years ago, when you told my brother and I to run, did you do it to save us from being killed that night? Or is there another reason?"